|
High-Level Forum Preparatory Consultations for Middle Eastern Countries
The Islamic Development Bank organized a regional workshop on aid effectiveness at its headquarters in Jeddah, on June 24-25 2008. The workshop involved representatives of Middle East countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. The Coordination Group played a key role in identifying the challenges to achieve a more effective and coordinated effort among development partners in the region. The CG comprises development financing institutions owned, in totality or majority, by Arab countries like the Abud Dhabi Fund for Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab economic Development, the Saudi Fund for Development, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Arab Monetary Fund, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, the Arab Gulf Program for United National Development Organizations, the OPEC fund for International Development and the Islamic Development Bank. The need to better disseminate information on activities supported by the CG and to increase reporting and recording of Arab aid in general was highlighted. The World Bank, the African Development Bank and the OECD also contributed to the discussions on the Paris Declaration commitments and the Accra Agenda for Action.
The various sessions of the workshop underscored the importance of capacity building both for donors and for recipients, to better address the challenges of implementing the Paris Declaration. Participants highlighted that civil society involvement in aid effectiveness had to take into account the local context, and that relying too much on CSOs for aid delivery could undermine, to some extent, the role of the State. This regional event also underlined that an active participation of financing institutions in the aid effectiveness agenda is fundamental to achieve real progress towards the goals set for 2010.
|
